Dig Safe

[ronjhall]

In Southeastern Michigan we must call MISS DIG before doing any digging. Gave them instruction on where we were going to dig some fence post. Gas Company did a good job of coming out when they said they would. Had the line properly marked. Phone Company came out and marked an area that was on the opposite end of house that was supposed to be marked. They came out again and left a tag saying there were no phone lines in the area I was going to dig. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif First hole I dug found what they must not have even tried to find. /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif I was digging by hand and did not harm the line. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I’m sure this is similar system to your Dig Safe. If you have to dig close to a marked line always do it by hand.

I checked on the Internet for MISS DIG had 231,000 hits. Some of the sites even had documents for contractors to use when doing digging. A couple of them listed Dig Safe as a reference.

 

[MChalkley]

Bird - <font color=blue>I think each company used to send their own personnel out to mark the lines, but it's sure changed in the last 10 years. </font color=blue>

I'm sure that's true. The way the current Miss Utility documents state it is "Each utility company is responsible for marking their own lines." You're right, that doesn't mean they have their own people doing it. And in some states, the arrangement may be different, too.

 

[kevincook]

A couple of neighbors have asked me to help them out with some small projects and I have been having them call the Dig Safe people before I do anything. In the past I didn't do this until I found a phone line going to a house that they didn't bother to bury at all. I was just hiding there in the grass.

How deep to you need to dig before it is considered digging? I rototilled my whole yard when I put in my lawn and never called anyone. Should I have? It seems to me that if something isn't buried more than 6" down than the installation was negligent.

If I aerate my lawn 4" deep does that count as digging?

I'm just curious if anyone knows what the law calls for.

 

[MChalkley]

kevincook - As with most things that have ever had any legislation associated with them, it's not quite as simple as determining how deep you're going to dig.

In Virginia, anybody doing any "excavating" is liable for punitive damages of up to three times the cost of repairing the utility, if you don't call "Miss Utility". Excavating is defined as ""any operation in which earth, rock, or other material in the ground is moved, removed, or otherwise displaced by means of any tools, equipment, or explosives and includes, without limitation, grading, trenching, digging, ditching, dredging, drilling, augering, tunneling, scraping, cable or pipe plowing and driving, wrecking, razing, rendering, moving, or removing any structure or mass of material." As you can see, that doesn't leave out much.

However, there are some important exceptions: If you own the property and are digging by hand. (I guess they don't mind if you cut it with a shovel...) Also, and this may be the most important to you, provided your state's laws are similar, an exclusion to the law is granted to "the tilling of soil for agricultural purposes".

If you want to read the whole thing, you can check out <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.state.va.us/scc/division/pue/missutil/dam_act.htm>this link</A>.

Hopefully, your state's laws are simpler, but given the fact that politicians are usually involved in their creation, I wouldn't count on it...

 

[Bird]

I've seen and/or known of lots of interesting things happening with underground utilities, and the depth varies with who put it in, when they put it in, what soil erosion has occurred since installation, etc., etc.

On one of the gas leakage jobs I was on they showed me where a farmer, plowing a field he had used for years, ruptured a gas main way out in the country. Fortunately, he knew where a valve was and ran to shut it off himself.

And when I was on the board of directors of our local water co-op, one of the members was replacing some rotted fence posts. He pulled an old post and was digging the same hole out deeper and ruptured a water main. He had been sent a bill for the repair because he didn't call before digging, so he came to the next board meeting. Under the circumstances, we didn't charge him for the repairs./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif The older water mains, such as the one I'm on, are only about 2' deep while the newer ones are usually 4' deep.

And I had a rough area between my shop and barn when I was fixing up this place, and I set my tiller very shallow to till that area to smooth it out, and I tilled up my own power line going to the barn./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif I don't know whether the original installer left it only a couple of inches deep or whether there had been some erosion since then.

 

[manganos]

I know we charge mucho bucks if you hit a phone cable and you didn't call Miss Utility here in VA. It is even worse if you hit one of our fibers. I beileve it runs to about $1000 an hour for a damaged or cut fiber per truck that has to be there. On the otherhand if you just happen to cut your drop (from the ped. to your Network Interface Device) I haven't seen anyone really billed for that in a LONG time . I'd call a locating service (miss utility) just to make sure there were no gas/electric lines anyways

 

[ewoss3]

I see fiber cuts every day and get to coordinate them on a regular basis from a national standpoint. In general most fiber cuts will run from $1000-$1300 per hour for the trucks plus you pay for the splice trailer and any heavy equipment that has to be brought in. The last fiber cut that I saw billed was $76,583. This was classified as a small cut. beware and make sure you call. if you have questions just ask and I will try to get you the latest information

 

[rf33]

Luckily for me, here in rural east TX, I am pretty sure that nobody here even knows what fiber is, let alone has any buried out here/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif. This is about as low tech as phone systems get, with a phone switch so old that I think it is really just a woman at a switchboard who still connects your calls by plugging your wire into someone elses.

 

[bsauter]

Our local locaters have been used with mixed results. I sliced my phone line digging once when the locator was two feet off. Luckily the phone company didn't charge me anything to fix it.

 

[TerryinMD]

rf33,

Don't be too sure about not having Fiber buried in your area. It's everywhere!! Better to be safe than sorry.

An interesting anecdote......

A neighbor of mine had an interesting incident on his property. He decided to put a fence around his back yard so that his dogs could have a safe running area.

He bought his materials, laid out his general plans, and CALLED MissUtility in Maryland. They promptly came out (they promise within 48 hours and I can vouch for that...) and marked his property. He also asked his neighbors about any buried cables and they said that they weren't aware of any where he was putting his fence.

I guess you can see where this is going.... /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif Well, he was in the process of putting in his last run of posts when it happened. The post hole digger kinda slowed down... musta been a root or rock... so he pulled it out... put it back in and fired it up again.... stupid ol' post hole digger just stopped dead. Banged and pulled and low and behold.... it came out along with the orange warning tape stating that there was some buried cable.

Of course, it HAD to happen on a Sunday afternoon - when else would something like that happen. As it turns out - power cable, phone lines , and cable TV. Nicely shredded!!! /w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif Funny part - no sparks, no shocks, nothing. Well, excepting the fact that he also took out one of those nice transformers to condition the power. /w3tcompact/icons/eyes.gif

So, the neighbor packed up all of his tools and called the utility companies. The electricity was back up in a few hours - new transformer and all. The phone lines were repaired the next day.

Now the bad part - my neighbor had to pay for some of the damages. Miss Utility marked WHERE they were supposed to. He missed his utility lines. He just happened to take out a few neighbors electricity and phone. The net of all of this is that the utiltlies worked out a deal where they only charged him for the labor to fix the line cuts - a few hundred dollars and his insurance payed for that. The electric company ate the cost of the transformer. I believe due to the fact that Miss Utility didn't mark all of the lines. OBTW - I forgot to mention. The buried line servicing the other neighbors house was partially buried on poor neighbor who cut his power and telephone. The original installation was off by a few feet. So, there was a little egg on the utility companies face.

So.... make sure that you use those services and tell them to check everything. It's all in your best interest.

Terry